


Drawings (Clizzy Soulmate AU)

by brokenfandoms



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Femslash, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2018-09-13 12:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9123556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenfandoms/pseuds/brokenfandoms
Summary: In a world where whatever your soulmate draws or writes on themselves shows up on your skin as well, Isabelle Lightwood wants to know who's drawing all over her arms in the middle of the night. But that doesn't stop her from dating around anyways. Until she finds out that her soulmate is actually her current boyfriend's best friend.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> there's a little sizzy in the beginning but then it's all clizzy don't worry

Isabelle Lightwood’s soulmate is an artist, and a very good one too. It’s another night spent watching their drawings swirl up her arm, but she doesn’t mind. Sometimes she wonders if this person realizes that what they draw on their skin will appear on hers too. She wonders if she knows them, if they know her. She wonders if maybe they draw on their arms all the time on purpose, to see if they can find her, their soulmate. 

But the drawings are always washed off by the morning, only drawn at night, so that so much still remains a mystery to Isabelle. Sometimes she’ll try to communicate with them, writing ‘hello’ on the back of her hand. But there’s never an answer, it’s doodled over within seconds.

‘I love your drawings’ she writes today, and this time, there’s a smudged reply of ‘thanks.’ It’s not much, but at least it’s a response, and that’s enough to make Isabelle smile. But now she has the put these drawings and her soulmate out of her mind - she has a date she has to get ready for and she hasn’t even gotten dressed yet. 

Isabelle’s phone rings as she sifts through the clothes in her closet, and she pulls it out of her pocket with a sigh. She hates being interrupted while deciding what to wear, but she answers the call anyways, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, Izzy,” it’s Simon, “Would it be okay if Clary joined us today? She feels like third-wheeling, plus, she kinda wants to meet you.”

“Clary as in your best friend Clary?” Isabelle asks, “As in your best friend Clary who I haven’t met yet even though you and I have been dating for a month? Yeah, of course it’s okay if she joins us, I kinda want to meet her, too.”

“Awesome!” Simon’s smile is clear in his voice, “We’ll meet you in an hour at Taki’s then, right?”

“Right,” Isabelle confirms, “See you then.” 

She hangs up, setting her phone down on her nightstand as she turns back to the closet. Eventually, she picks out something simple, dressing in a black crop-top and ripped skinny jeans. Carefully, she brushes and curls her hair before putting on her favorite shade of bright red lipstick. Isabelle never felt like she had to look good for Simon, but for some reason she feels like she has to make a good impression on his best friend. 

Izzy spins in front a mirror, satisfied with her appearance, before she leaves.

Simon and Clary are already there and waiting for her when she arrives at Taki’s, finding them at a table outside. Isabelle has to stop for a second when she sees them, momentarily shocked by Clary’s appearance. With her shock of bright red hair and intense green eyes, she’s so much prettier than Izzy expected...not that she expected someone ugly, just that it make her wonder why Simon is dating her when he has a best friend who looks like that. 

Clary elbows Simon as Isabelle approaches, “You said she was pretty but you never told me she was a literal goddess.” 

Isabelle can’t help but smile, “Right back at you. Simon never warned me about your beauty either.” 

Simon (bless him) looks a bit confused, “Is this, like, a girl thing?”

“What?” Izzy laughs, “Complimenting each other? Yeah, I guess so.” 

“It shouldn’t be just a girl thing, though,” Clary says thoughtfully, “I mean, what’s so girly about being nice to people?”

“Hmm, good point,” Isabelle agrees. 

Simon doesn’t seem to know how to react to this. Finally he sighs, “I’m glad you two are getting along.” 

“Sorry, Simon. I know I’m supposed to be third wheeling on this date, not you,” Clary says, looking at her friend, “I’ll shut up now.” 

Clary doesn’t say much for a while, and Isabelle is almost disappointed - she liked talking with Clary - but she also enjoys talking to Simon, too, so everything is good. They move to a different conversation topic, in which Simon describes some geeky thing he likes while Isabelle laughs and calls him a nerd. In times like these, their relationship feels more like that of siblings, save for the fact that they’re holding hands across the table. 

Isabelle loves Simon, she really does, and she finds him very cute - but in the way she might love or call a puppy cute. There’s definitely feeling there, just not quite the right ones for someone you’re supposed to be dating. 

Evidently, Clary has no idea what Isabelle really thinks of Simon, as the first thing she says since she said she’d shut up is, “You two are so cute. It’s too bad you aren’t soulmates.”

“Yeah...unless Simon draws all over his arms in the middle of the night and never told me,” Izzy says, her tone light and joking. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Simon says, and he’s joking, too, “Have I never told you how great of an artist I am?”

A strange expression crosses Clary’s face and she stands up suddenly, muttering that she has to go to the bathroom, and she walks away. Izzy and Simon are left staring after her in slight confusion until Simon breaks the odd silence after a minute by saying, “It looks like your soulmate’s at it again.”

Isabelle checks her arms first, thinking Simon is still joking as she sees nothing there. Then she notices black ink making its way across the exposed skin of her stomach. “Huh, that’s odd. They’ve never drawn there before.” 

“At least whoever it is actually draws on themself, gives you something to go off of. Y’know, like consistent proof that they exist.” Simon says, almost enviously, “I’ve never seen anything from mine.”

“Aw, I’m sure you’ll find them eventually,” Izzy says. Then she leans over to kiss his cheek, “But for now, at least we’ve got each other.” 

“Yeah,” Simon smiles as he turns his head to catch Isabelle’s lips instead. 

Neither of them notice Clary coming back. She takes one look at them before walking away again, and they don’t notice that either.


	2. Chapter 2

When Clary Fray gets home that night, she barely makes it inside before sliding to the floor. She’s shaking. Why is she shaking? She doesn’t know what’s going on in her head, so she takes a deep breath and tries to backtrack, trying to keep her thoughts quick and matter of fact as she goes over what had just happened at Simon and Isabelle’s date. 

She met Isabelle. Isabelle was gorgeous. She talked to Isabelle. They got along. Simon felt left out. Clary stopped talking. Then she...felt jealous. She was jealous of...the way they talked. The chemistry she saw between them caused her to mentioned soulmates. Isabelle mentioned hers drawing on her arms at night. Clary draws on her arms at night. That realization scared her. She went to the bathroom to test it. She drew where it would be seen on Isabelle but not on her. She came back and they were kissing. There was jealousy again. But Clary saw her drawing on Isabelle’s midriff. 

Clary is shaking because she just found out who her soulmate is, but found her while she was kissing someone else.

What can she do now? Should she tell Isabelle? Or tell Simon to tell her, since Clary didn’t have any of Isabelle’s contact information? That would be so awkward. Clary almost cringes as she imagines how that conversation would go: “Oh, by the way, can you tell your girlfriend that she’s actually my soulmate?”

Then a thought occurs to her and, God, she feels like an idiot. Finally managing to clear all thoughts from her head, she picks up the nearest pen and writes on her hand. ‘I know you,’ she writes, ‘this is going to be strange for both of us, but you should know who I am, too.’ 

The response doesn’t come until morning, just before Clary is about to wash it off. She wakes up and is heading to the sink in disappointment when she sees Isabelle’s writing appear on her hand: ‘so tell me’

‘meet me at central park’ Clary answers. 

She gets there quickly, sitting on a bench as she waits. Only a few minutes later, Isabelle shows up. It’s a big park and she looks a bit lost as she wanders the place in search of whoever invited her here. Clary just watches for a moment, working up to the courage to talk to her as Isabelle starts to wander her way. 

Then Clary notices that Isabelle is wearing the same clothes she was yesterday, her lipstick is every so slightly smeared, and her hair is just barely disheveled. Clary can guess what Isabelle had just been doing, and she’s filled with a sudden protectiveness for her best friend. 

Without another thought, she marches over to the other girl, falling into step beside her, “Did you sleep with Simon?” Clary demands. 

Isabelle whirls around in surprise, “Excuse me?”

“You did, didn’t you!” Clary exclaims accusingly, “He’s not even your soulmate-”

“Oh, don’t get all high and mighty on me with that ‘wait for your soulmate’ crap,” Isabelle rolls her eyes, “And not that it’s any of your business, but I’m actually about to meet my soulmate right now.”

Clary then remembers exactly what she’s doing here in the first place, “Oh...about that…” Suddenly shy, she silently holds up the back of her hand to show Isabelle their conversation written on the back of it. 

Isabelle stares for a second, raising her eyebrows, “You? Wow, I can’t believe it. I mean, really? My soulmate is my boyfriend’s best friend?!”

Clary’s instinct is to apologize, even though this was something beyond her control. But it turns out, she doesn’t have too. As Clary opens her mouth to say sorry, Isabelle breaks into a genuine laugh and adds, “How hilarious is that?” 

Isabelle’s laugh is infectious and Clary can’t help but smile slightly. But the smile falls as she says, “So...what do we do with this? What now? Simon isn’t going to like this…and I’m still upset over you sleeping with him, by the way!” 

“Hmm, I wonder which one of us you’re jealous of…” Isabelle says with mock thoughtfulness. 

This time it’s Clary who rolls her eyes, “I’m serious, Isabelle. What now?” 

“Now,” Isabelle says, “We tell Simon.” 

And with that, she walked away, her black curls bouncing with every step. Clary followed, trying to swallow down her anxiety and stop her brain from imagining every single possible bad outcome. 

~

Simon Lewis definitely doesn’t expect to find both Clary and Isabelle on his doorstep that afternoon. And yet here they are. Clary looks anxious but Isabelle’s expression is guarded.

“What’s going on?” Simon asks, their expressions making him wary.

“I told you I was going to go meet my soulmate,” Izzy says, “Guess who I found…”

Simon looks at the two of them. His girlfriend and his best friend. The realization dawns on him and he feels like he just got punched in the stomach. His girlfriend and his best friend are soulmates. “Um…” he’s not sure what he should say, “So are you two...gonna be together now…?”

“We, uh, we don’t know what we’re going to do. This is so weird...for all of us,” Clary tells him. 

The silence that follows radiates so much awkwardness that Simon just feels like crawling out of his own skin and disappearing. The image that thought creates is oddly graphic and Simon shakes his head to clear it. “Okay...um…” he glances at Isabelle, “Izzy, does this mean we’re breaking up…?”

Isabelle shrugs, “I guess so. I mean, now that I really know who my soulmate is, it would be weird to continue dating someone else.”

Simon’s throat feels dry all of the sudden and swallowing doesn’t help. “Okay. I’ll, uh, I’ll leave you two to figure yourselves out, then.” 

He closes the door on them without waiting for a response. Why this is affecting him so weirdly, he isn’t sure. He knew something like this would happen eventually, though he never guessed it would be quite like this. With a sigh, he tells himself to get over it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been a while!!! sorry!!! also this is kinda a short chapter but i promise promise promise i'm working on the next one and hopefully it won't be another two years~

“I told you he’d be upset.” Clary says after the door slams shut. 

“He’ll find his soulmate, too, and he’ll get over it,” Isabelle says. She knows she’s being a bit harsh lately, but that’s all she knows how to do - putting up walls so that she can safely process everything that’s happening...or so she doesn’t have to process it at all. Softening a little, she adds, “Sorry. This isn’t really easy for me either.” 

“I know. It’s okay. This is just all so strange...” Clary says. This has to be at least the third time she’s mentioned how weird this whole situation is. “So...now what?”

“Now, I’m going to go home to fix my hair and put new clothes on,” Isabelle says, “As for us, I think we should get to know each other more, hang out as friends for a while and see what happens.” 

Clay gives a quick nod and a smile, “Okay. I can handle that.”

Izzy smiles, too, “See you around, then.” 

The mark of soulmates that they share means that they will inevitably grow to love each other, but as they walk their separate ways, Isabelle can’t help realizing that that might be easier for her than she thought. She’d already felt drawn to Clary from the moment she saw her, every second she’s spent with her so far has been spent being pulled in more and more by the other girl’s fierce but caring personality. Isabelle’s only worry going forward is that Clary won’t feel the same way as quickly. 

Then she shakes her head and rolls her eyes at herself, laughing. She’s Isabelle Lightwood, and no one she’s met yet has been able to resist her. With that worry now replaced by her signature confidence, the only thing left for her to deal with is the guilt that’s starting to settle from their conversation with Simon. 

As soon as she gets home, Izzy texts her newest ex-boyfriend:   
IZZY: I know I seemed pretty cold earlier but I’m really sorry about everything that just happened. I still care about you, you know, and I hope we can continue to be friends.

Oh, and she still probably should get Clary’s number as well, but Isabelle decides not to burden Simon even more. Besides, Izzy can always just communicate with the other girl through writing on her arm. 

It seems Clary has the same idea. Less than a half an hour later, Isabelle notices new words making their way across her skin. ‘It’s weird to keep talking through this so uh let’s keep in touch through our phones instead?’ 

She watches as a phone number appears in parenthesis next to the writing, and she smiles as she writes a response and her own number as well. Once she’s done putting Clary’s contact into her phone, she checks on her messages to Simon. They’ve been read, but with no reply. 

IZZY: Simon...I know you saw that...talk to me

The response is quick this time.  
SIMON: yeah, we’re cool. no big deal

IZZY: You sure? 

SIMON: yeah. I really just spent that half an hour trying to figure out how to say that

IZZY: Okay, dork

Though Isabelle isn’t entirely sure she believes him, spending a half an hour decided what to say in a text message is definitely a very realistic thing for Simon to do. Whatever, she shouldn’t think about that too much. Instead, she sends a text to Clary. 

~

Clary can’t stop thinking about Isabelle. Every time she closes her eyes she sees Izzy’s perfect face and perfect figure. Part of her knows she shouldn’t be thinking like this about someone she barely knows yet, but the other half reminds her that she and Isabelle are soulmates...so why fight it?

Her thoughts are interrupted by the buzzing of her phone, and Clary can’t help but smile when she sees a text from Izzy.   
ISABELLE: Hi Clary! It’s Isabelle. Just making sure I’ve got the right number

CLARY: Yep, it’s me. Hi! 

Somehow, this stretches into a full conversation, and Clary doesn’t want it to end. She realizes it’s going to be very hard to just “hang out as friends for a while” with Isabelle. The more she thinks about it, the more Clary just wants to try touching her and kissing her. They’re soulmates. Soulmates. 

Ever since she was little, Clary has been a hopeless romantic, always daydreaming about finding her soulmate, always doodling what she imagined they’d look like. But all the perfect faces she drew could never prepare her for the one she was faced with now, the one she couldn’t stop thinking about. She hopes Isabelle can’t stop thinking about her either. 

The next time they hang out, Clary promises herself to suggest maybe skipping the just friends part.


End file.
